Rob Ford-themed Toronto city hall circus plots to extend its stay

In the ongoing circus that is Toronto’s city hall, the latest claim is that the Ford brothers, Rob and Doug, are “plotting” to outflank the order that removed Rob Ford from the mayor’s office, by having Doug Ford run in a by-election to replace him, while Rob “turns his attention” (such as it is) to provioncial politics.

This fevered plot is delivered to us courtesy of the Toronto Star, which is going to collapse soon if it doesn’t calm down. The authority for the scoop are two unnamed “political organizers” who maintain it is “being floated among Ford’s inner circle.” And Doug Ford said he couldn’t comment, which to Star editors represents definite confirmation, because if it wasn’t true, he’d deny it, right?

When the notion of a Rob Ford mayoral bid was first raised some years ago, the idea struck me as baffling. I had never covered civic politics for the Post, but as an editor on the news desk I was well aware of the then-councillor. He had a hot temper. He had infamously been flat-out caught lying about drunkenly insulting some people at a Maple Leafs game.

The Star is sensitive to plots at the moment, because it has been plotting feverishly for weeks to parachute Olivia Chow into the chaotic municipal scene in the curious belief that it would somehow improve the situation. There’s a marked immunity to logic behind this, since Rob Ford was elected just two years ago thanks to an overwhelming yearning to remove the city from the grasp of the band of downtown leftwingers who ran it like a private club for the organically minded for seven years under the leadership of former mayor David Miller. Chow spent 14 years on city council as a charter member of the left-wingers club before decamping to Ottawa. Imposing her as mayor would simply prolong the partisan warfare on council and worsen the divide pitting Toronto’s downtown core against its angry suburbs. It would be an act of defiance against the revolt that made Ford the mayor in the first place.

But maybe it’s too late for logic. The Star continued is campaign today, with a poll of all things. These days polls are so easy to produce that I’m surprised you can’t order them online, or via an app on your phone while standing in line at Starbucks, complete with staged questions constructed to produce the result you prefer. The Star’s poll — which could have come from 12 people gathered at a downtown bus stop for all I know — claims that 60% said they agreed with the mayor being turfed, and 40% said they’d support Chow. (We’re told this was an “exclusive” poll, which means what … that no one else wanted anything to do with it?)

The notion of Doug Ford running to replace his brother wasn’t dreamed up by the Star alone, but has been mooted on the talk-radio shows that have had a field day this week with the antics at city hall. It has that hillbilly flavour that appeals to the Ford brothers. George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama who was blocked from running for re-election in 1966, ran wife Lurleen instead. She won and served just over a year until her death, opening the door to another run by her husband. Since then it’s become almost traditional: As of 2004, according to Wikipedia, 36 widows have won their husbands’ seats in the House, and 8 in the Senate.

If the Fords are genuinely contemplating it, they should stop now. It’s a bad idea. As fellow pundit Matt Gurney noted on Tuesday, Doug has not proven to be the steadying influence on his brother that was anticipated. If anything, he aggravates Rob’s worst instincts by lending his support, often loudly, and chipping in with bad ideas of his own. Rob Ford, for all his faults, has an air of authenticity about him that his brother lacks. It’s early yet, but I suspect Torontonians would not warm to a Doug Ford candidacy, and the pair would only succeed in deflating what sympathy remains for the unhappy situation in which the mayor finds himself.

And there is legitimate sympathy. You can hear it from the angry radio callers, a conspicuous share of whom carry noticeable accents and appear to reflect the alarm of people who came to Canada from less democratic countries and fear they are seeing a repeat of the sort of cynical manipulation they came here to escape. Canada, they point out, isn’t supposed to be a country where the courts can overturn the decision of the voters.

“This is Canada, where the people elect their leaders. In Pakistan, judges choose their leaders. In Egypt, military commanders choose their leaders. Council should allow the people to choose their mayor, and Ford should be able to be judged by the people,” he said on Tuesday.

What gets countries like that in trouble is the neverending supply of bad ideas, selected to suit unworthy agendas. Mayor Doug Ford is one such idea. Mayor Olivia Chow is another.